Ghost Theme Mysteries : Super Supernatural Paranormal Theme Mysteries

September 21, 2008

About a week ago I received a note from a site reader who asked:
“Could you make a list of paranomal cozies, cozies with witches, occult, vampires & such?”

I had already started a skeleton of a list which included some different supernatural themes, and thought: What better time to be making a theme with werewolves, vampires, “& such” than right before Halloween…. So here goes!

Ghosts:

P. J. Alderman: Port Chatham Mystery Series… Jordan Marsh owns a haunted house on the west coast of USA.

Mignon F. Ballard: Augusta Goodnight Mystery Series… Augusta Goodnight is a guardian angel who helps solve mysteries… (I wasn’t sure if I should put Augusta in this category but decided to go ahead and include her, she is a guardian angel.)

J. J. Cook (aka Joyce and Jim Lavene): Sweet Pepper Fire Brigade Mystery Series… Stella Griffin is the current fire chief of these fire station in Tennessee. She is helped by an ex fire chief, who is deceased.

E. J. Copperman: Haunted Guesthouse Mystery Series… Alison may be the owner of the guesthouse, but Paul and Maxie do as they (ghostly) please.

Casey Daniels: Pepper Martin Mystery Series… Pepper is a cemetery tour guide who gets help with her sleuthing from a dead mob boss.

Jana DeLeon: Ghost-in-Law Mystery Series… features a botanist, her friend, and her deceased mother-in-law as the sleuths.

Great site! Annette Blair started a new mystery series with ghosts. The first is A Veiled Deception. Casey Daniels has a series (A Pepper Martin Mystery) taking place in a graveyard where the main character helps ghosts solve mysteries.

Hi Penelope and Lisa,
Welcome to the site! I’m glad that you have been able to find a few authors who you might enjoy.

When I first started the site, I only included Cozy Mystery authors who I followed. As time went on, I started getting more and more recommendations from other Cozy Mystery readers. So, thanks to those recommendations, I have found several other authors who I now follow.

I would like to comment on Madelyn Alt’s newest book “At Witches in Time.” I so enjoy this series and watching Maggie develop her talent and fall in love. I was really looking forward to how she was doing, only to be left in limbo. In the beginning her romance department was looking up and she and Marcus were moving forward only to be interrupted in the middle by a mystery (oh, no!) Well the mystery ended but it never got back to their relationship: of which I was disappointed that it didn’t finish what it started. I love her books and all the developing talents people have, I just wish it would move at a little faster pace and have her actually use more of her talent. There just wasn’t much used in this book. I will look forward to the next one and hope it finishes what this book started.

This just happens to be my FAVORITE genre. With that in mind, I have two more authors… Sue Ann Jaffarian and P.J. Alderman. Sue has the “Ghost of Granny Apples” mysteries. P.J. has “Port Chatham Mystery series”.

Wow you are great!!! Thank you for a wonderful, wonderful site, very nice. I get almost as much fun reading about the different cozys as reading one 🙂 You did a great job. I will be back ..over and over again.. thanks, Sally

I have been trying to find an author I really enjoyed in either Ellery Queen or Alfred Hitchcock magazine many years ago. The hero was a hypochondriac who had a different outrageous illness in each story, using a medical manual of some sort. She solved mysteries reluctantly with her aunt and cousin, but she actually was surprisingly successful.

Judith, I’m glad you wrote about Juliet Blackwell’s Haunted Home Renovation Mystery Series. For some reason, every time I looked at Blackwell’s page on the site, I fixated on her Witchcraft Mystery Series. Thank you!

I, too, don’t like super servings of hot, steamy sex or blood and guts all over. I want good plots you can’t see a mile off, developed characters, usually justice triumphant, and as icing and sprinkles on the cake, humor laced throughout and maybe even some paranormal thrown in. Oh, and once I find an author that fills this laundry list–a long, long series of books to feast on. I am so happy to have come across this treasure site of unexplored writers (of 21 names, I am familiar with 3!)

This site is the most awesome site, thank you soooooo very much for having these authors listed, I am always looking for a new series and this will help me find one. Keep up the great work. Kudos to you a million times over.

Nancy Atherton. Aunt Dimity is a type of ghost with her writings. At least, in the first book there is mention of her paranormal abilities (she prepared the cottage for the heroine to welcome her -tea, a fire in the fireplace)

hi I found a book earlier now can’t find it. It involves a youngish lady who inherits a bookshop from her grandmother who has died but keeps hanging around. if anyone can help me remember I would be very happy. so many thanks and happy reading judy

I’m so glad to have stumbled across your site! I’ve been a big reader of urban fantasy for years but lately I’ve been feeling a bit bored with it, so I started reading the cozy’s with a paranormal theme and found most of them utterly fun! Then I mixed it up a bit when my mom gave me the Cece Caruso mysteries by Susan Kandel and I went through them like a hot knife through butter. I’m using your site to compile my wish-list for when I visit the flea market and used bookstores. I’ve also shared your site on my Facebook page a few times. Thanks so much for doing what you do here!!

First – thank you so very much for this site. I often refer to it when in need of something new. Therefore I would like to add to the list a completely new and unknown to me so far author of “A Skeleton in the Family (A Family Skeleton Mystery)” – Leigh Perry. It deals with lovable characters among whom we can find Sid – a walking/ talking/ joking skeleton. I just finished the book and warmly encourage to reach for it. Not only the characters are believable but there is also enough of mystery, real-life activities and problems and fun to make this relaxing reading for the coming chilly fall.

My first visit to this site and I am impressed. I have noticed Terri Reid is not on your list. She writes great books which I have enjoyed and I’m sure others would as well. Thanks for a great book listing.

Wonderful, wonderful. I was hoping to somehow remember the name of a series and simply entered ‘mysteries with ghosts’ and up came this site. So many new books to read, some many new ghosty and human friends to enjoy during the coming days. Glad to find that there are lots of people like me who enjoy this genre. Thank you for starting this list.

So glad I stumbled upon this blog. I’m a new author trying to figure out how to categorize my novels. 😀 I have ghosts, ghost hunters, romance, and mystery in my series. Looking forward to reading some of these authors to see if my work fits in to this category.

You might want to add Angie Fox’s Southern Ghost Hunter Mysteries series about Verity Long who lives with the ghost of a 1920s gangster. She accidentally trapped him on her property & gained the ability to see spirits. Fun series. Think there are 9 books in the series so far.